Art

Smith Square, five minute’s walk from the Houses of Parliament, is dominated by St John’s Smith Square, the baroque church designed by Thomas Archer and completed in 1728 which was converted to a concert hall after being bombed in the Second World War. At one time the Square housed the headquarters of both the Conservative […]

The title of Saatchi’s new exhibition “Champagne Life” might conjure up images of bohemian dancing with champagne on the beach, but it is taken from one of Julia Wachel’s pictures which contrasts the lonely life of artists working creatively for all the hours of the day that they can in their cold Spartan studios with […]

Hand in hand, lovers stroll along the Malecon. The rolling sea crashes onto the rocks under the romantic Cuban sky with the wild beat of Latin American music floating across from the open windows of the nearby buildings. The change comes quickly – black clouds approach and the sea heaves as the wind blows the […]

Strong geometric images in his paintings reflect Venezuelan artist Cipriano Martinez’s initial training as a civil engineer and his experience of working in his uncle’s print shop in Caracas. They depict the conflicting urban landscape of cities where engineers and architects seek to impose a rigorous order but the overall effect is a chaotic assembly […]

Who was the man who wore this steel helmet, almost still in pristine condition undamaged by the battle shells, the bullets and the stains of war? He was a Sergeant, but why did he carry a well-used hammer, a worn leather pouch and white cloths with him the middle of a battlefield, in which the […]

Driving along the Pan-American Highway through Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on the planet, a huge white hand suddenly rises up, like a remnant of a huge ancient sculpture that may be buried underneath the sands, waiting to be excavated. “Mano del Desierto” by Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal was installed in 1992 to […]

The timber steps are worn down with generations of workmen carrying tools, materials and finished products up and down the staircase. Close your eyes and you can hear them shouting at each other above the noise of machinery and hammering and, perhaps, the odd gunshot. Originally a 18th century family home with a ground floor […]

Looking like a young rebel of the 1960’s with his denim suit covered in badges (one of which appears to be of Elvis Presley) and holding a leaflet also with Elvis, Peter Blake’s “Self-Portrait with Badges” in Tate Britain is an appetiser to his exhibition “Peter Blake: Portraits and People”, at the Waddington Custot Galleries, […]

Melancholy musical sounds permeate the main galleries, adding a haunting sound to the historic portraits by artists such as Antony van Dyke, the Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Henry Moore’s stone and bronze sculptures, David Hockney’s double-portrait paintings and sculptures by Jacob Epstein and Anthony Caro. The building prevents the sound reaching its furthest corners, so the room […]

The White Cube gallery in Bermondsey has created controversy with the exhibition of Gilbert and George’s “The Banners” which are exactly, as titled, banners and have to be taken as such, relating back to an event in the Serpentine Gallery in 2014 where the artists held up banners with controversial sayings in front of the […]

Ian Caldwell

"The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul."
(Thomas Moore)
To be an architect means having a wide range of interests - architecture, art and creativity in all its variety of forms, sustainability, science and innovation. The greatest interest is often where these different worlds overlap and collide - that is when something imaginative often occurs that pushes us all forward to another place

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"Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for example"
(John Ruskin)
I hope to showcase contemporary design and innovation, including architecture, art, design, science, technology and sustainability, to those searching for architecture, design and art inspiration to create beauty. I hope you enjoy it and will contribute to it.